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Medium Build is the project of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nick Carpenter. Medium Build was a concept brought to life when Nick was in college studying commercial songwriting. Everyone around him seemed to be trying to create overly-glossy, picture perfect products – and that just wasn’t for him.
Nick grew up in Atlanta, and spent time in Nashville trying to write commercial pop-country songs professionally. He saw it as a way to make money, and figured he could use the money to help finance Medium Build… but he just wasn’t happy. In 2016, Nick decided to move to Anchorage. He made the trek to Alaska with his mom via car within the span of only four days.
As a creative, it’s important to listen to what your heart is telling you to do. Nick has described Medium Build as his opportunity to be “shitty,” and make what he wanted to make. Even if it wasn’t perfect, it was still authentically him!
Nick attempted to get away from music as a whole, but he found himself coming right back to it. While at karaoke one day, he met James Glaves. Glaves worked sound at the venue, and he encouraged Nick to play shows and eventually put a band together.
Nick uses music as a way to not only escape from everyday life, but a way to keep himself in check. He shared, “I use songwriting as a way to escape myself or normalize my feelings. If I can sing something really fucked up. Then it’s out of my head. And it also keeps me accountable. I use songwriting as this way of saying, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m not okay.’ And then people are like, ‘Oh, sick. Us too.'”
Medium Build constantly evolves, as it is a collaboration built around friendships, community, and a mutual passion for similar interests. Nothing is ever stale here! Medium Build’s new single “99 Corolla” just arrived today, and it’s filled with quirky melodies and a very sentimental backstory.
Describing the track, Nick said, “Winters in Alaska are brutal. It’s a season where people find someone to hunker-down with, and sometimes you need to need to cling to someone with their bad habits and all just to make it through. 99 Corolla is written about one of those rough winters where my partner, at the time, said she said she felt hopeless. When someone tells you that, your first instinct is to try and make them feel better, even if it’s just a surface level thing. So, we went to Taco Bell and saw these kids in big trucks doing donuts in the snowy parking lot of the abandoned Sam’s Club. I thought why not join them, and I whipped around in my shitty 99 Corolla to try and help because I didn’t know what else to do. It was my attempt at making her feel better, even when I knew I was only creating a temporary feeling.”
Listen to “99 Corolla” below, and say hi to Medium Build on Instagram @mediumbuild! As you listen, be sure to check out the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center at niwrc.org.
